President George W. Bush (R) gestures to Masoud Barzani, president of the Iraqi Regional Government of Kurdistan, during a meeting in the Oval Office, Tuesday 25 October 2005. Bush noted that Barzani, who was wearing Kurdistani national dress, would have been killed for such a thing during the rule of Saddam Hussein. (UPI Photo/Mike Theiler/Pool)

Masoud Barzani (Kurdish: مسعودبارزانی, Mesûd Barzanî) (born August 16, 1946) is the current President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region and the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party. Barzani was born in Mahabad, Iran, during the rule of the Republic of Mahabad. He has five sons (incl. Masrour) and three daughters.

Masoud Barzani succeeded his father, the former Kurdish nationalist leader Mustafa Barzani, as the leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in 1979. Working closely with his brother Idriss Barzani until Idriss' death, Barzani was able to continue the Kurdish struggle through the trying years of the Iran-Iraq War. For much of this time, the Iraqi Kurdish leadership was exiled to Iran.

With Saddam Hussein's defeat in the first Gulf War, Kurdish forces were able to retake much of the traditional homeland of the Kurds in Iraq. However, as Iraqi forces regrouped they pushed the Kurdish fighters back and hundreds of thousands of civilians fled to the mountains bordering Iran and Turkey, where thousands died under heavy fire from Iraqi gunships and many more succumbed to starvation and exposure. Turkish authorities refused to allow Kurds into their country, and the United States-led allies stepped in to establish a safe zone within Iraq. This zone, protected by a no-fly zone, eventually developed into an autonomous Kurdish zone under the control of the two dominant Kurdish political parties, the KDP led by Masoud Barzani and the PUK led by Jalal Talabani. This zone incorporated most of the three governorates of Dohuk, Erbil, and Suleimaniyah.

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